BGSU women’s basketball (4-4) defeated Kentucky State (2-5) 103-32 to earn their third straight win of the season. While the offense scored over 100 points and shot 55.2%, the story of the game was? The Falcon defense.
At the beginning of the season, third-year head coach Fred Chmiel stressed that the team’s identity would be built on defense. While it’s still early in the season, the Falcons’ defense took control of the game and never gave the Thorobreds a chance.
“We have a foundation built on defense,” Chmiel said in an interview with Falcon Media Sports Network. “It’s gonna be more intense on the defensive side, which should cause us to get out and transition a little bit more. I’ve always had a plan to play a really intense, disruptive defense. But I think this year we’ve kind of made it to that point.”
The Falcons held Kentucky State scoreless after the first quarter. It was the first time they’ve shut a team out in a quarter since the 2022-2023 season in a game against Detroit Mercy.
“I think it just shows how hard we work in practice,” said junior guard Paige Kohler, “Defense is one of our big principles, and being able to come in a game like that and being able to hold them to zero points in a quarter, it just shows our focus and discipline.
Chmiel is also seeing the team’s work defensively in practice translate onto the court, even if it took a few games for them to gel.
“We work really hard on defense, really get after it in practice, and unfortunately, there were a few games that it didn’t look like we played very good defense,” said Chmiel postgame. “We have practice guys that are really good athletes and really good basketball players, and we do a pretty good job at defending them in practice.”
Bowling Green finished the game holding Kentucky State to 13-51 from the floor and 1-5 from three. They also had 12 more defensive rebounds, 35-23.
All 13 players saw action on the floor for Bowling Green, with six different players recording steals and five players getting a block. Sophomore guard Johnea Donahue tied her career high with eight steals, and junior forward Taya Ellis led the way with three rejections.
“It’s just awesome being able to see them succeed with how hard they work in practice,” said Kohler. “They work as hard as everybody else, and just getting to see them go out there and show what they can do is really awesome to see.”
The Falcons will continue their home stand on Sunday, taking on Defiance College (3-7) at the Stroh Center on Sunday, Dec. 7, with tip-off at 1:00 p.m. Falcon Media Sports Network will have full coverage of the game on bgfalconmedia.com.
